From measure predicates to count nouns: Complex measure nouns in Russian

Keren Khrizman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper offers a semantic analysis of morphologically complex measure nouns in Russian (e.g., trexlitrovka 'three-liter-kasuffix'). Prima facie such nouns look very much like measure predicates such as three liters that appear in pseudo-partitives as three liters of water. I show that they are not such. In particular I shall argue that: (i) complex measure nouns are not measure predicates, but are genuine count nouns denoting entities with certain measure characteristics; (ii) they are derived via an operation which shifts measure predicates expressing measure properties to nouns denoting disjoint entities that have these properties; (iii) the interpretational domain involves a wide range of entities including containers and portions. I will then show that the analysis has at least two important implications: (a) it supports the reality of measure predicates (three liters); (b) it shows that measure-to-count shifts are productive semantic operations.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in formal Slavic linguistics 2018
PublisherLanguage Science Press
Pages169-188
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9783961103225
ISBN (Print)9783985540181
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, the authors.

Keywords

  • Measure-to-count semantic shifts
  • Measure/count predicates
  • Nominalization

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